Chapter 12 - Rafe's Promise
Nico stared at Rafe.
“No more riddles.”
Rafe nodded.
“Fair.”
“Where is the archive?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“I'll tell you after you listen.”
Nico stepped closer.
“I have listened to everyone for eleven months without knowing it.”
“People lied.”
“People hid evidence.”
“People decided what I could handle.”
“And my wife died.”
Rafe accepted every word.
Then he removed an envelope from inside his jacket.
“Elena gave me this the week before the crash.”
Nico did not take it.
“What is it?”
“A letter to me.”
“Read it.”
Rafe opened the envelope.
The paper had been folded many times.
“Elena wrote that the council archive was more dangerous than useful.”
“She said it contained evidence against hundreds of people.”
“But it also contained blackmail material against innocent relatives.”
“Medical records.”
“Affairs.”
“Children born outside marriages.”
“Private debts.”
“Things Sofia used to control people.”
Nico looked at Camilla.
She nodded.
Rafe continued.
“Elena wanted the criminal evidence preserved.”
“The personal blackmail destroyed.”
“So you took the archive.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Two days after Elena died.”
Nico stared.
“You knew about this apartment eleven months ago.”
“Yes.”
Nico punched him.
Rafe staggered backward.
He did not defend himself.
Camilla stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Nico pointed at Rafe.
“You let me grieve while you kept my wife's secrets.”
Rafe wiped blood from his lip.
“I kept my promise to her.”
“You betrayed me.”
“Yes.”
The immediate admission stopped Nico.
Rafe continued.
“I betrayed you to keep Vivia alive.”
“I would do it again.”
Nico wanted to strike him again.
Then Vivia's voice echoed in his memory.
Hitting people makes lies louder.
He lowered his fist.
“Where is the archive?”
Rafe gave him an address.
A monastery outside Parma.
Nico frowned.
“Why there?”
“Elena's brother Luca is a priest there.”
Nico stared.
“Elena didn't have a brother.”
Rafe sighed.
“She did.”
Nico laughed in disbelief.
“Of course she did.”
Camilla almost smiled despite herself.
Rafe explained.
“Luca and Elena had the same mother.”
“Different fathers.”
“They were estranged from the rest of the family.”
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“She thought you knew.”
“I didn't.”
Rafe looked uncomfortable.
“That may be the only secret that wasn't about the council.”
They drove to Parma before noon.
Nico refused sleep.
He refused food.
He wanted the truth finished.
Father Luca met them in a stone courtyard.
He was in his early forties.
Nico immediately saw Elena in his face.
The same eyes.
The same calm expression.
Luca embraced Nico.
Nico remained stiff.
“You knew.”
Luca nodded.
“Yes.”
Nico pulled away.
“Everyone knew.”
Luca looked sad.
“Not everything.”
“Enough.”
Vivia ran from the second vehicle.
Luca's face transformed.
“Little moon.”
Vivia stopped.
She stared at him.
“Mommy called me that.”
Luca knelt.
“She called you that in every letter.”
Vivia looked at Nico.
“Who is he?”
Nico swallowed.
“Your uncle.”
Vivia's eyes widened.
“I have another uncle?”
Luca laughed.
“Apparently.”
Vivia hugged him.
Nico looked away.
For the first time that day, something did not feel poisoned.
They entered the monastery archive.
Rafe opened a steel cabinet.
Inside were twelve black binders.
“The council archive.”
Nico stared.
“You didn't burn it.”
“No.”
“Elena told you to.”
“She told me to destroy the personal files.”
“I couldn't.”
“Why?”
“Because one file contained something about her.”
Nico tensed.
“What?”
Rafe removed a folder.
ELENA VITTORI BELLANDI.
Nico opened it.
Surveillance photographs.
Financial records.
Medical appointments.
Private correspondence.
Then he found a DNA report.
He stared.
“What is this?”
Luca stepped closer.
His expression changed.
“Oh.”
Nico looked at him.
“You know.”
Luca nodded slowly.
“Elena discovered it when she was investigating Salvatore.”
“What?”
Luca looked toward Vivia.
“Not in front of her.”
Nico asked Camilla to take Vivia outside.
When the door closed, Luca spoke.
“Salvatore Bellandi wasn't your biological father.”
Nico stared.
Rafe lowered his eyes.
Nico laughed once.
“No.”
Luca placed another document on the table.
A DNA comparison.
Nico read.
The probability was conclusive.
His biological father was not Salvatore.
Nico looked at Isabella's name in a handwritten annotation.
“She knew.”
Luca nodded.
“Apparently.”
Nico's world shifted again.
“Who is my father?”
Luca removed one photograph.
Two young men stood beside Isabella.
One was Salvatore.
The other was Adrian Voss.
Nico stared at him.
“No.”
Luca whispered.
“Adrian Voss is your biological father.”
The room went silent.
Nico thought about Camilla.
His fiancée.
Voss's daughter.
His stomach turned.
Luca immediately spoke.
“Camilla is not Adrian's biological daughter.”
Nico looked at him sharply.
“She was adopted.”
Nico sat down.
Rafe exhaled.
“That explains why Voss was obsessed with protecting you.”
Nico covered his face.
Every relationship had become a lie.
Luca turned another page.
“There is more.”
Nico laughed weakly.
“There is always more.”
Luca pointed toward a council document.
“Because Salvatore wasn't your biological father, the original Bellandi trust should never have passed through you.”
Nico looked up.
“But Father's later trust names my biological child.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Salvatore knew.”
Nico froze.
“He knew I wasn't his?”
Luca nodded.
“And he chose you anyway.”
For the first time in days, Nico felt something unexpected.
Love.
Salvatore had known.
And still called him son.
Luca continued.
“That created a legal vulnerability.”
“What vulnerability?”
“If Sofia proves Salvatore's original trust invalid, she can void Vivia's controlling claim.”
Nico's face hardened.
“Then who gets control?”
Luca turned the document around.
The successor was clearly named.
ISABELLA BELLANDI.
Nico stared.
May you like
His mother did not merely have a reason to protect Vivia.
She had a reason to destroy her inheritance.
